John carefully triple checked the egg in the backpack… Still safe. "Right, I think we're ready to go."
[[Grace: Don't just teleport to Zatanna my Lord. Her location is SATURATED with Magic, and you will probably break something moving through it.]]
Oh, good point! "Anywhere close by that I can [[Step]] into? Preferably without a crowd of people so I don't freak anyone out or set off a scene."
[[Temptation: We're looking, but the girl's home is under a LOT of surveillance. Mystical stuff, what little we can detect at least… Some ordinary cops and what seems to be undercover snitches nearby… LOADS of cameras. It all stops when you get close to that place, maybe because of the raw power the home radiates, but you might have to walk a few blocks if you want to avoid being recorded by a dozen people.]]
[[Jessica: I have my agents looking around, it should only take a few more minutes. They have to move more slowly due to so many higher beings existing in this Realm.]]
That didn't sound right. "I thought you girls and our Duel Monsters couldn't leave the Pocket for security reasons?"
[[Jessica: My agents are PART of the modified security module's protocols. Their abilities are restricted when operating like this, but when it comes to information gathering you couldn't ask for a better group of people. Even MIB agents would be impressed by their capabilities, trust me.]]
Fair enough. Although it did bring up the question… "Are any of my Frogs helping out? Or the other members of my Soul Swamp?"
[[Temptation: Heh, no! Those guys have been having a non-stop party in your Soul for a while now. I'd say it is because they are confident that you can handle any issues that might come up, but I feel they are all just enjoying their new home a little too much.]]
Huh. He really should hang out in his own Soul mesh network more often. "Right, well let me know where to show up and I'll head right over for dinner."
John grinned at the egg, gently patting it once more. "You're going to love Zatanna! She's a magical girl, and those always need a lovable animal sidekick!"
It was probably a rule or something. "Wonder why she was so worried about the thing talking though… None of the other dinosaurs here talk. We even ran their patterns through the translation modules and got nothing more than expected animal behavior. Maybe a bit smarter than dogs or pigs, but nowhere near as smart as an octopus…"
Though it was hard to judge that sort of thing. What if one dog was a genius? Or if you ran into a squid with mental deficiencies? Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem. "I mean, things might CHANGE when you shove Magic from an actual magical girl into the equation, but by default it should just grow up to be a boring old dino."
Like, he'd OFFERED to genetically enhance the egg and change all sorts of stuff, but for some reason Zatanna was insistent that John just keep it healthy and not alter it in any way. Not even to give it cool skin colors or glowing eyes or nothing! Sheesh.
Well whatever, it was going to be HER familiar. So her opinion was more important than John's idle curiosity with the potential of mutant dinosaurs.
Speaking of which… "Hey, is this little guy or gal going to be able to eat like… Human food? Or plants or something? Will it be okay when we hand it over for adoption?"
[[Grace: It seems to be more of an insectivore than a general carnivore… Yes, it might be difficult for Zatanna to keep it properly fed unless there is some sort of magical solution.]]
[[Temptation: Ooh! I know! Let's leave a Crafting Chest and have it Craft random food supplied into a bunch of the local bugs here! Dead ones, of course… Don't want to cause an apocalyptic swarm or anything. That way if this dino prefers meat or whatever instead, that should be easy enough for them to get compared to finding the massive insects that are all over this place.]]
Huh. Yeah, that should work. "I'll make another one that Crafts more dino steaks too, just in case the baby needs some of it to stay healthy or whatever… Or if Zatanna's family likes the dishes we bring, so they can cook more when we leave this crazy place to somewhere less dangerous."
Because honestly, he could FEEL things in places unseen attempting to track him down. And half of them weren't even doing it on purpose! Good grief.
Hmm. "You know what… Let's go with three chests. Two Crafting chests, to make dino meat and primordial insect corpses… And one Stasis Chest for me to move all these dinner dishes into! I mean, we've made a LOT of them at this point and I don't want any of it to go to waste."
[[Temptation: Better make sure to use different materials for each one. No one wants to reach for a sandwich and accidentally grab a four foot long cockroach.]]
Oh. Eww… Yeah, that was a good point. "I'll make the Stasis Chest for cooked dishes out of
Glowstone, the raw meat Crafting Chest out of
Netherrack, and the bug one out of… Uh… Not
Soul Sand, the screaming from that stuff is REALLY loud in this Realm. Let's go with putting the bugs in a Glass Crafting Chest so you can see what is in there before you open it."
[[Jessica: We're going to use the simplified design for the Crafting Chests, right? Not like the industrial versions we set up in Doe Park, but the ones where it converts stuff inside into the desired material?]]
John nodded. "Yeah, it's best to have as few bits and pieces as possible when making something to stay stable and usable for the long term… And this one won't be installed in our [[Home]] for her to watch over, so we need to play things even safer than usual. No one needs an unexpected endless flood of dead bugs, for example… Best to include some additional safety measures."
Let's see here… Checks to confirm that the box is sitting mostly vertically, instead of hanging open upside down. Another check to verify nothing supplied to be converted was like, ALIVE or something… No one was going to accidentally convert a baby into dead bugs on JOHN'S watch!
Maybe a Conceptual value test? So anything with emotional or monetary value wouldn't be bugified? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. In fact, he should push that idea up the chain to the girls so they could implement that throughout their [[Home]] so none of the many gadgets and stuff would accidentally damage valuable stuff when someone put something important where it should be.
Hmm. "I'm going to need to set up some sort of holographic interface, since we don't have enough data about local Magic to do this with illusions or whatever. It's the only way to easily set up some adjustable settings, like if the converted material should be hot or cold or kept in stasis, or whatever."
[[Grace: I'll see what I can do… We need any included technology to interface with some sort of Conceptual power source though. It's efficient, and can 'tax' materials being supplied for more power while converting stuff, but still…]]
Hmm, good point. "Do Essence Torches from Steve's world stabilize into unending magical flames in this Realm too?"
[[Temptation: Nope! They become sources of 'Light Essence' here. Good for the skin, not a source of free power.]]
Well crumbs, that would have been super convenient. Oh well… Oh! "I can give them a
Flower Pot and a
Sunflower! Ones without a direct connection to us, so it won't be bound to our existence in this Realm."
[[Grace: Oh yes, that will work! They can just pop in a ball of Sun every once in a while and that should be more than enough to power all the mechanical bits.]]
[[Temptation: Plus we can include a Torch to make sure the thing has enough light to work with!]]
Yeah, that would work great!
[[Jessica: …Isn't offering endless units of Sun a bit dangerous all on its own?]]
What?
Oh.
Ohhh… "I mean, only a little? It made ME a bit loopy, and maybe gives a stronger kick than the worst sugar rush ever… But like, they're magic people. I'm sure they are used to handling unusual materials, or stuff that is a bit dangerous."
[[Grace: I'll include some warnings and stuff when we give the gifts, and John can warn them about it directly.]]
[[Temptation: And you are all assuming that Borg technology will work just fine in this Realm in the first place! Remember that not all Laws of existence operate the same between locations! Like our Torches, for example.]]
…Oh yeah. "Grace?"
[[Grace: I'll uh… I'll get back to you in a bit. Let me just um… Test some stuff first.]]
He absently adjusted the dino egg backpack once again, confirming it was safe and sound. "Should I delay heading over to Zatanna's house then? We've still got a couple of hours or so anyway, and we can skip my plans to wander around first… So we can still show up on time."
[[Grace: No no! This should only take twenty minutes or less. If it all falls apart entirely, I can just modify the Crafting Chest to Craft a document showing the current setup with some check marks to alter them when the sheet is used as input. Clunky, but it would work.]]
Right, well… As long as she was sure. "So… Where should I [[Step]]?"
[[Temptation: Ooh! Here! In THIS area! The location isn't as well marked as the ones that Grace was looking over, but Morphy the Morphin Grid says that the local version of Reality would REALLY appreciate it if you picked this one!]]
[[Grace: Wait, WHAT!? When did Morphy become friends with THIS Reality!? I thought they were still sending letters and stuff to the LAST one!?]]
[[Temptation: Oh they've set up this whole chain letter system thing using [[Home]] as a sort of chat room administrator. ALL the previous Transferred Realms have their Realities talking with each other now, except the one that Mistress came from since it was abandoned using emergency escape module procedures. They find John's antics fascinating, apparently.]]
Well. Damn. Apparently that was a thing.
[[Jessica: …I was just being updated with my Agent teams and I wasn't paying attention since bringing up my concerns about deploying raw Sun units to the locals. What EXACTLY did I just miss?]]
John felt Reality itself sort of nudged him in a direction… Oh, that was helpful! And it would also assist in hiding his actual movement along the way from all these things that were trying to find him too. Super handy, that was.
Oh wait, his sister's question! "Right so, uh… Grace is designing my gift boxes. One for the food we're bringing for dinner, one to Craft more dino meat, and one to Craft lots of delicious bugs for this egg when it hatches. I found out that reality knows I am here, which sort of destroys the entire point of my security modules now that I think of it, but has sort of joined a gossiping group of all our PREVIOUSLY encountered realities like a bunch of happy grandparents or something. Reality saw that we were having issues about where I could show up to Zatanna's for dinner because of all the stuff your Agents have been investigating, and suggested I go over [[That]] way because it wants me to see something or do something there."
Hmm, the [[Step]] this time was a bit tricky. He needed to twist like this, and sort of lean that way, and then move forwards H̶ȩ͟͡r͏̸ȩ…
[[Jessica: HOLD UP! Don't just… And he's already gone. Damn it! Catch up to him, Grace!]]
[[Grace: I'm on it!]]
[[Temptation: It shouldn't take so long this time to reconnect, I'm sure he's… Oh dear.]]
~~~Pocket System~~~
John blinked at the room full of kids. "Um. Hi?"
Most of them were staring at him blankly.
One of the smaller girls with tubes in her nose and a bald head decided to wave back. "Hi?"
Huh. "Anyone know where I am? I was told to come here, but no one bothered to tell me where HERE actually was."
The brave little girl blinked. "Dis is the
hospital."
Oh! "I've been in one of these before! It was back when my Body was falling apart and before I met my big sister!" He carefully placed his backpack to one side. "Do they still have apple slices? I had my VERY FIRST apple slice in a hospital just like this one!"
She looked a little lost. "I… Yes?"
One of the older boys, also tubed up and hairless, was staring at the bright pink backpack. "What is that?"
Huh? "You mean, this?" John tapped the backpack.
The kid nodded. "Yeah."
John shrugged. "It's a padded egg carrying backpack to keep the dinosaur egg safe."
A sort of awkward stunned silence filled the room…
Um. What was he supposed to do now? "So… Uh. My name is John. John Doe! I'm currently 22 years old, now that my Body isn't being twisted by time and space and stuff, but I've previously been older and younger and a robot once. And one time I was made out of Grass, and another time I was… Anyway, if anyone asks who I am and they don't recognize what I look like now, just tell them I had a bit of an accident when fighting a really naughty statue so I may have temporarily been ten or twelve years old for a few days or whatever."
They were staring at him.
He coughed. "I got better… Anyway, who are YOU guys and gals? Would you like to be friends!?"
After all, John didn't need to show up for dinner for like, a couple of hours or whatever. He had tons of time!
